It was just getting dark. There was a touch of fog and I was on a lonely stretch of road.   36 I was going along cheerfully, thinking about the dinner I would eat when I got to Salistury .
I was going along   37 at about thirty-five miles an hour when suddenly I heard a scream, a  38 scream--- “ Help! ” I looked round, but the only   39 of life was a large, black, rather suspicious--looking（可疑的）car just   40  a bend in the road about a hundred yards away. That was where the cry had come from. I   41  speed and went after it. I think the driver saw what I was doing, for he did the same and began to draw   42  me. As I drew near, the girl’s voice came again, a lovely voice but trembling with   43  .
“Let me go, you coward; you’re hurting me. Oh ! Oh ! ”
I felt my   44  boil. The fog was coming down   45  now, and the countryside was lonelier. I had no  46 that the murderous guy in the car noticed this. Again came a cry.
“Drop that knife, you fool. Oh ! ” Then a cry and a groan（呻吟）.
If I was to save her, it was now or   47 . Perhaps even now I was too late. But if I couldn’t save the girl, I would at least try to bring the murderer to   48 . The car was only a couple of yards away now. I drove the bike right across its   49 , and its brakes（刹车）screamed as the driver tried to pull it over and  50  into the ditch（沟）at the side of the road. The door of the car was pushed open angrily and a dark, evil-looking fellow stepped out .
“You fool!” he shouted as he came towards me with his fist raised to hit me. But I was   51   than he. I put all I could into   52  that would have knocked out Joe Louis. It   53  him right on the point of the chin; his   54  slowly bent under him, and he dropped to the ground without a sound. I rushed to the car,   55  open the door and looked inside. There was no girl there. Suddenly from the back of the car came a voice.
“You have been listening to a radio play, Murder in Hollywood, with Mae Garbo and Clark Taylor. The news will follow immediately . ”

I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous. I felt blindly in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes, which had   31  the search of jailers (people who guard prisoners). I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could   32  get it to my lips. But I had no matches, they had taken those.
I   33  through the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me. I called out to him, “Have you got a light?” He looked at me,   34  and came over to light my cigarette. As he came close and   35  the match, his eyes accidentally locked with mine. At that moment, I   36 . I don't know why I did that. Perhaps it was   37 , perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another, it is very   38  not to smile. In any case, I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a   39  jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didn't want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and   40  a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed   41 , looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile.
I kept smiling at him, now   42  of him as a person and not just a jailer. “Do you have   43 ?” he asked. “Yes, here.” I took out my wallet and nervously felt for the   44  of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his family and began to talk about his plans and hopes for them. My eyes were   45  with tears. I said that I   46  that I'd never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up.   47  came to his eyes, too.   48 , without another word, he   49  my cell and silently led me out. There, at the edge of town, he   50  me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.
My life was saved by a smile. Yes, the smile ― the unaffected, unplanned, natural connection between people.
【小题1】.. 

When I was a ten-year-old girl, I was once asked to deliver a speech titled “A Real Test in My Life”. To talk before the whole class! Just imagine how   31   (terrible) shy I was the moment I thought of that with so many eyes fixed upon me. I had no other   32   (choose), though. First I was to draft the speech and that was just a piece of cake for me, because I was a good writer－something to pride myself in. But the hard part   33   (lie) in my oral presentation; to read from   34   paper was not allowed; I had to give the speech   35   my memory and in front of such a big audience! A real trial began when I stood on the platform with my legs   36   (tremble) and my mind blank. How much time had passed by, I didn’t know. My listeners were still waiting, patiently and without any signs of rushing me. Gradually I found????  37   back, giving out my speech with difficulty. Finally I finished. After   38   seemed to be a hundred years, I found my audience applauding. I made it! From then on, my fear of talking before an audience disappeared. Actually with my confidence building   39  , I now turn out to be a great speaker. Looking back, I know the greatest difficulty on our way to success is our fear; overcome it,   40   we will be able to achieve our goals.

Nick was not the kind of boy I had expected to spend my summer with. I was hoping to have a relaxation the summer before my busy senior year, __36__ my mother asked me to do her a __37__. One of her colleagues needed a full－time __38__. “You planned to volunteer at the local hospital; why not volunteer to __39__ Nick instead？” Then she told me that this six-year-old boy was not a __40__ child.
Nick was a lovely little boy who suffered from many disorders. Normal day-care centers would not __41__ him. As a baby, he had serious ear infections which left him with equilibrium(平衡)problems. He couldn't __42__ or run properly. I was hesitating __43__ I was to take the job when my mother __44__, “Don't you want to be a nurse in the future? I doubt if you even have the __45__.”
Then I told her I was __46__ for the job.
The day started at 7：00 a．m. Nick was my wake-up call! With so much energy and very little __47__ , he was quite a mix.
At the park, when he saw all the other children play on the jungle gym and swings, the boy's face __48__ up—How he wished he belonged to the group of his age! You would think it would be__49__ to get a child to go down a slide. Believe me, it wasn't! It took time, a lot of time. But with patience and support, Nick took one step up the slide each day. We worked together to face his __50__ and gradually he got closer to taking the slide of his life.
Halfway through the summer, he __51__ it to the top of the slide. With my arms __52_ him tightly, we flew down the slide! I waited for his reaction. After realizing that he was safe and sound, he gave me a big __53__ and asked, “May I go down again, alone？”
I had never been happier in my life when I saw this little child climb the ladder and enjoy what other children __54__ for granted.
This __55__ child taught me that being a nurse means respect, kindness and patience.

I began working in journalism(新闻工作) when I was eight.It was my mother’s idea.She wanted me to“make something”of myself,and decided I had better start young if I was to have any chance of keeping up with the competition.

With my load of magazines I headed toward Belleville Avenue.The crowds were there.There were two gas stations on the corner of Belleville and Union.For several hours I made myself highly visible,making sure everyone could see me and the heavy black letters on the bag that said THE SATURDAY EVENING POST.When it was suppertime,I walked back home.

“How many did you sell,my boy?”my mother asked.

“None.”

“Where did you go?”

“The corner of Belleville and Union Avenues.”

“What did you do?”

“Stood on the corner waiting for somebody to buy a Saturday Evening Post.”

“You just stood there?”

“Didn’t sell a single one.”

“My God,Russell!”

Uncle Allen put in,“Well,I’ve decided to take the Post.”I handed him a copy and he paid me a nickel(五分镍币).It was the first nickel I earned.

Afterwards my mother taught me how to be a salesman.I would have to ring doorbells,address adults with self-confidence(自信),and persuade them by saying that no one,no matter how poor,could afford to be without the Saturday Evening Post in the home.

One day,I told my mother I’d changed my mind.I didn’t want to make a success in the magazine business.

“If you think you can change your mind like this,”she replied,“you’ll become a good-for-nothing.”She insisted that,as soon as school was over,I should start ringing doorbells,selling magazines.Whenever I said no,she would scold me.

My mother and I had fought this battle almost as long as I could remember.My mother,dissatisfied with my father’s plain workman’s life,determined that I would not grow up like him and his people.But never did she expect that,forty years later,such a successful journalist as me would go back to her husband’s people for true life and love.

Why did the boy start his job young?

A.He wanted to be famous in the future.

B.The job was quite easy for him.

C.His mother had high hopes for him.

D.The competition for the job was fierce.

From the dialogue between the boy and his mother,we learn that the mother was _______.

A.excited                                                         B.interested

C.ashamed                                                       D.disappointed

What did the mother do when the boy wanted to give up?

A.She forced him to continue.

B.She punished him.

C.She gave him some money.

D.She changed her plan.

What does the underlined phrase “this battle”(last paragraph) refer to?

A.The war between the boy’s parents.

B.The arguing between the boy and his mother.

C.The quarrel between the boy and his customers.

D.The fight between the boy and his father.

What is the text mainly about?

A.The early life of a journalist.

B.The early success of a journalist.

C.The happy childhood of the writer.

D.The important role of the writer in his family.